All You Need to Know About the Oculus Rift Virtual Reality Headset| By |John Smith

Oculus started the project in 2012 as a crowd-funded campaign on Kickstarter. The project proved to be immensely successful such that Facebook opted to purchase Oculus for 2 billion dollars in 2014.

The oculus rift is everything that you can hope to get in a VR wearable. In this article, we’ll discuss the different aspects of this wearable in thorough details. So let’s begin without further ado.

The Oculus Rift: A basic Overview

Oculus rift is a PC powered, cable tethered VR headset powered by computer processors which makes it significantly more powerful than the entry level VR models.

The Rift headset requires a high end rig to function properly and has a list price of a humungous $599.

To sum up, I will say if you want to get yourself a Rift and use it to its maximum potential level, you need to shell out a total of around $1,600 to $1,700 on a high end rig and the Rift itself. So do take all these things into account before going for it.

What does the box include?

The Rift headset (with in-built headphones and mic).

Oculus remote and sensor (The remote is a form of TV remote. The sensor is used to track you).

A wireless gamepad (with adapter and batteries).

Connecting cables.

An additional tool to detach the in-built headphones.

Oculus Rift: Technical specifications

The headset includes:

A motion sensing accelerometer

A gyroscope

Twin AMOLED displays (1200 by 1080 pixels/eye)

Adjustable lens

Refresh rate of 90Hz

A 4m cable

Facial interface

The sensor includes:

Infrared tracking

A 2.5m cable to connect the sensor to your PC

A camera stand.

Recommended specifications of your PC

Like I said before, the Oculus rift supports only high end rigs. Here are technical specifications are recommended for your PC (by the Rift itself) for proper functioning:

NVIDIA GTX 970 or AMD R9 290 (Equivalent/Greater)

Intel i5-4590 CPU. (Equivalent/greater)

HDMI output

8GB and more RAM

Windows 7 service pack 1 64-bit or higher OS.

THREE USB 3.0 ports

What can you do with the Oculus Rift apart from gaming?

The potentials are plenty.

Remember, your imagination is your only limitation as far as the use of the Rift is concerned. Here are a few professional ways to benefit from the Rift:

3D architectural rendering

Most designers and architects spend a whole lot of time in showing off their wares to their clients. It’s an important part of their job indeed. That’s because the more impression they make, the more the chances of them securing a contract.

3D architectural visualization can come in as a blessing in this aspect because it can help to render designs in three dimensions resulting in improved comprehensibility from the client’s point of view.

A simple step like that can really make all the difference in the world and can actually make you a standout among the crowd, if you are really into this job.

Certain companies are now using their customizable software to create a VR-compatible three-dimensional model which can allow clients to feel as if they are actually present inside the very design itself. The Oculus Rift takes this experience to another level.

So efficiency you wanted; efficiency you’ll get. Is there anything more you want?

Tourism

Remembers all those 360-degree virtual tours? Those have more or less become an integral part of tourism now for a number of factors ranging from convenient hotel booking to getting total value for money.

A little sneak peak at the Oculus Rift experience

Imagine looking at the pyramid of Giza through the aid of your Oculus Rift (just a glimpse of the tour that’s going to come if you go ahead with the package) from the very comfort of your drawing room. Such an experience will be far more gratifying indeed.

The business will also be able to draw in more customers over the long run as a result of this.

A few worthy mentions…

Health care (e.g. doctors can use the Rift to treat patients with mental disorders. The immersive VR can come in handy in such situations.)

Education (e.g. bringing subjects like History and Geography to life through the aid of the Oculus Rift).

Real estate (the concept of a 360-degree virtual tour is again applicable here).

The virtual reality technology has countless potential. The Oculus Rift is just the start. Let’s see how it goes in the years to follow.